Your Favorite Quick and Easy Pasta Dish
By Pigglies
@Pigglies (9329)
United States
June 9, 2008 8:08pm CST
I love making pasta, but I only know so many recipes. The ones I make most are the quick and easy pastas because I'm always running low on time. So what do you make for your quick and easy pasta dish?
I'll share mine:
I take some Penne pasta, boil it al dente. While that is boiling, I crush some garlic and put it in a frying pan with some olive oil. When the pasta is ready to take off the stove, I rinse it off, then place it into the garlic mix (if I use half a box of pasta, I use 5 cloves of garlic, but adjust to your tastes... my recipes are by no means exact!). From here, I have two versions:
Easy Version:
Just add crushed red pepper, heat, and serve! This is for super fast pasta with flavor when you have no time.
Still Pretty Easy Version:
If you have 10 minutes instead of no time, try this one. Instead of adding crushed red pepper, I don't add spices. I add pearl onions, then marinated sun dried tomatoes, then artichoke hearts if I feel like it, and then some pine nuts. If I don't add the artichoke hearts, I might add some torn fresh basil.
And that's my quick and easy pasta! So what's yours?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@janujennifer (664)
• Philippines
10 Jun 08
One of my quick pasta dishes is I sauteed garlic and onion, put some milk and grated cheese. I just wait until it's a little thick and top it on freshly cooked pasta. At times, if it's available, I would put some chopped bacon to it, too. But, if I was really hungry, I would just boil pasta, grease it with a little butter (i don't put oil in the water when i boil pasta) sprinkle some dried basil and grated cheese, and I have quick tummy fix!
Your recipe is good. I will try that one out -- I love bell peppers!
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
10 Jun 08
I don't put oil in the water when boiling pasta either... I didn't even think that would be possible since oil and water have a hydrophobic interaction? I just put a small amount of oil to sautee the garlic and use that oil.
I'll have to try adding bell peppers sometime, that sounds good.
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@elisa812 (3026)
• United States
10 Jun 08
One quick and really easy pasta dish that I like to make sometimes is where I'll cook some spaghetti, then mix it up with the spaghetti sauce and put it all into a square dish. Then, I'll put lots of mozzarella cheese all over the top of it all, and then I add pepperonis on top and bake it in the oven for a bit, just until the cheese is all melted and the pepperonis are cooked. It's so simple and really yummy! Kind of a cross between spaghetti and pizza.
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@janujennifer (664)
• Philippines
10 Jun 08
That sounded delicious, elisa. It's like having two dishes in one! Can I try that one out for myself? Thanks!
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@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
11 Jun 08
That sounds yummy.
I'm not using red peppers in mine either, I used that spicy crushed red pepper stuff that you get at pizza places. I don't think actual red bell peppers would work as well, although I do buy them occasionally for my guinea pig due to their vitamin C content.
What do you season canned tomatoes with?
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